How I got a big advance from a big publisher and self-published anyway

I have a new book out today. It’s called The New American Dream: A Blueprint for a New Path to Success. You will notice that the link goes to Hyperink. They are an independent publisher.

I sold this same book, two years ago, to a mainstream publisher.

I have been reporting on research about on how to be happy for almost a decade. It’s important to me that everyone learn what I learned, which is if you want to have a good life, you shouldn’t focus on happiness, but rather, on making your life interesting. That’s what makes us feel fulfilled. Searching for happiness is making us crazy. And creating an interesting life is actually intuitive to most of us, it’s just that we feel like somehow we are doing something wrong. This book explains why you are probably on the right track, and all that stuff you hear about the pursuit of happiness is from another time. A time of ignorance, when we knew a lot less about what makes us human.

So I sold my book to a mainstream publisher and they sucked. I am going to go into extreme detail about how much they sucked, so I’m not going to tell you the name of the publisher because I got a lot of money from them. I’m just going to tell you that the mainstream publisher is huge, and if you have any respect left for print publishing, you respect this publisher.  But you will not at the end of this post.

To be clear, I wrote my book, and they paid me my advance, in full. Three months before the publication date, the PR department called me up to “coordinate our efforts.” But really, their call was just about giving me a list of what I was going to do to publicize the book. I asked them what they were going to do. They had no idea. Seriously. They did not have a written plan, or any list, and when I pushed one of the people on this first call to give me examples of what the publishers would do to promote my book, she said “newsgroups.”

I assumed I was misunderstanding. I said, “You mean like newsgroups from the early 90s? Those newsgroups? USENET?”

“Yes.”

“Who is part of newsgroups anymore?”

“We actually have really good lists because we have been working with them for so long.”

“People in newsgroups buy books? You are marketing my book through newsgroups?”

I’m not going to go through the whole conversation, okay? Because the person was taken off my book before the next phone call.

At the next phone call, I asked again about how they were going to publicize my book. I told them that I’m happy to do it on my blog, but I already know I can sell tons of books by writing about my book on my blog. So they need to tell me how they are going to sell tons of books.

“LinkedIn.”

“What? Where are you selling books on LinkedIn?”

“One of the things we do is build buzz on our fan page.”

I went ballistic. There is no publishing industry fan page that is good enough to sell books. No one goes to fan pages for publishers because publishers are not household brand names. The authors are. That’s how publishing works.

“You know what your problem is?” I said, “Marketing online requires that you have a brand name and a following, and the book industry doesn’t build it’s own brand. But I have my own brand. So I’m better at marketing books than you are. I have a voice online and you don’t.”

I scheduled a phone call with my editor’s boss’s boss to tell him that. I told him his business is online marketing and his team has no idea how to do it, and he should hire me.

He told me, “With all due respect [which, I find, is always a euphemism for I hate your guts] we have been profitable every year that I’ve run this division and I don’t think we have a problem.”

Then he told me he really needs me to work well together with the marketing and publicity team, so they flew me to their office to have a meeting. There were five people in the meeting.

Here’s what I learned at the marketing meeting, where I sat through an interminable set of PowerPoint slides on the book industry.

Print publishers have no idea who is buying their books.

More than 85% of books sales are online, mostly at Amazon. It used to be that a print publisher could look at the data about which stores are selling the book and which are not, and then they’d have a good handle on who is buying the book. Suburban people or city people. Northern people or Southern people. Business book stores or gay and lesbian bookstores. It was decent demographic data. But Amazon tells the publishers nothing. So the publishers have no idea who is buying their books. Amazon, meanwhile, is getting great at understanding who is buying which book. The person who has the relationship with the customer is the one who owns the business.

When I pointed this out to my publisher, they told me that for my book, they expected to sell more than 50% of the books in independent bookstores. And then they showed me slides on how they market to people offline. They did not realize that I ran an independent bookstore while I was growing up. It was the family business. I ran numbers for them to show them that if they sold 50% of the sales they estimated for my book, they would single-handedly change the metrics of independent booksellers. That’s how preposterous their estimates were.

Print publishers have no idea how to market online. 

The old ways that publishers promote books, like TV spots and back-of-book blurbs are over. They don’t sell books in an online world. Those offline marketing tactics have no accountability, whereas online marketing is a metrics game. If you tell people to buy something, you have very good data on what caused them to buy. You know the marketing message that drove them. You know the community you were talking to, you know how many sales happened. Print publishers have been too arrogant to learn how to run a grassroots, metrics-based publicity campaign online. They cannot tell which of their online efforts works and which doesn’t because they can’t track sales. They don’t know how many people they reach.

The profit margins in mainstream publishing are so low they are almost nonexistent.

It takes a print publisher about a year to publish a book, after it is written. It’s unclear what the  publishers are doing during this time. For example, in the age of the Internet, where most books are selling online, the cover needs to be very simple so that it works as a small image on Amazon. It’s hard to imagine going through months of design iterations for a cover that is going to be seen by most potential buyers as a photo on Amazon. Book aficionados might argue that there are essential things being done with books over the course of that year. What I will tell you is that newspaper people said the same thing. Right before they all got laid off. The most breathtaking example, I think, of how terrible margins are, is that if I sell my own book with a link to my publisher, I make a little less than $1 per book. If I sell Guy Kawasaki’s book  on Amazon, I get a little more than $1 per book in their affiliate program. So it’s more profitable to me to use my blog to sell someone else’s book than to sell the book I published with a mainstream publisher.

In the middle of the meeting, the high-up guy who had come in to make peace got so fed up he said, “If you don’t stop berating our publicity department we are not going to publish your book.”

I said, “Great. Because I think you are incompetent. And also, you have already paid me. It’s a great deal for me.”

That’s how the meeting ended.

Then I did six months of research to learn about the future of the publishing industry.

Here are the new rules for book publishing:

1. Self-published books are the new business card. It’s a way to remember someone and also know what’s interesting about them.

2. Nonfiction writers write books to get something else—speaking gigs, consulting gigs, a steady flow of job offers. Books are good for a lot of things, but direct sales from a book are rarely a way to support a life.

3. Book sales are about community. If you have a community of people who listen to you via blog posts, then you have a community of people who will be interested to know how you put a bigger idea together in a book.

4. Book sales are about search engine marketing. The only markets that exist on the Internet are search terms. If no one searches for xyz, no one will land on a page that sells xyz. You can only sell what people are looking for.

5. The only reason to have a print book is to be in Barnes & Noble. You can achieve just about every goal you might have for book publishing by publishing it electronically. An electronic book serves a lot of purposes: you can talk about bigger ideas than a blog post allows for. You give people an easy way to know you for your ideas. You can create a secondary revenue stream for yourself. A print book is mostly about vanity. It’s about being able to go into Barnes & Noble, when you are there for the magazines and the free Wi-Fi, and stroke your ego by holding your own book.

I also did a lot of research about self-publishing. I had lots of offers. Freelance editors, book designers, turnkey solutions, almost-turnkey solutions. What I realized is that I want to be a person known for ideas. I love love love my blog. And the result of loving my blog is that I develop ideas that are bigger than a blog. Those are good for books. And I need a book editor to help me put them into a book.

After six months of research, I decided to use Hyperink. Their focus is helping people take blog content and turn it into books. They have an incredible editorial team that helps bloggers move from single, blog-post ideas, to larger, big-picture ideas. My editor was Theresa Noll, and I have to give her a shoutout because every experience I’ve had in the book industry was awful. But I loved working with her. I was blown away with how competent Hyperink is. They knew exactly how to make a book cover that looks good as a thumbnail and in a blog post photo. They understood that the idea mattered way more to me than the proofreading. They are great at SEO and they know more about marketing books online than I do.

Finally. I figured out how to do book publishing in a way that works for me.

 

 

209 replies
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  1. Roger C. Parker
    Roger C. Parker says:

    This is a great post…and not exaggerated at all.

    It resonated with me as it brought back so many memories of my experiences with numerous publishers while writing 38 books sold around the world.

    One of my favorite memories–re Internet–was going to a NYC publisher’s skyscraper offices to discuss an Internet book–and innocently asking if they had a copy of Books in Print.

    To find out, my acquisitions editor and I went to the company library. The huge company “had” **one copy** of Books in Print, but it was a CD-ROM version–and someone had mangled it by stuffing it in the PC’s disc drive

    Great job! Thanks for the reality check.
    Roger

  2. Shmuel Shimshoni
    Shmuel Shimshoni says:

    I have Durrance publishing printing a book for me through their RoseDog books division that is now going into about eight months.
    I had a different book published for me with Trafford Publishing Singapore. From the date I signed my contract with them till I received 50 books took about FIVE weeks.
    Being a new author I couldn’t interest any publisher to invest in my books.
    Thank you for your candid report on the publishing industry.
    Shmuel

  3. Andrew Knox
    Andrew Knox says:

    Yes Penelope Trunk, “Book sales are about community.” My
    book is on the history of Black Catholics in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, so I market my book to Churches. This marketing source works for me.

    Andrew Knox, author
    “Blazing an African American Trail”

  4. Helene Byrne, BeFit-Mom
    Helene Byrne, BeFit-Mom says:

    Welcome to the club!
    Bottom line: if the marketing, publicty and promotion plan is not in your contract, then there isn’t one.
    But my publisher story is worse than yours.
    Not only did a similar thing happen to me, but after several years of red flags (which I took to be continued incompetency) it turned out that NONE of my specialty/non bookstore sales were ever reported on my royalty statements. This amounted to about half of my print run. My first editor, and his boss, passed on false numbers and kept split the money between themselves.

  5. Caroline Miller
    Caroline Miller says:

    I write a blog 5 days a week about writing and life. I’m an old broad who has written two books and will soon have a third published in October, but I have to stop and say thanks for your comments about changes in publishing. An eye opener for me. I learned some new tricks.

  6. Leanne
    Leanne says:

    Just bought the book. It is $5.95 on Hyperink and $7.95 on Amazon. (For Kindle). So, I bought it directly off the Hyperink site. I downloaded the Kindle App for my Mac, then I had to transfer it to my Kindle while being connected by the USB. No big deal, but I did need to email Hyperink to ask them how to do this. ( The Kindle is new and I am learning to use it). They answered me in in about 30 seconds!
    Will try to get it on my iPhone too. Can’t wait to read it!

  7. jsuper
    jsuper says:

    Great article! Although, the spelling/grammar was not…

    Still, I work in PR and promote authors…I cannot believe what you went through with that publisher – shocking! Demographics, strategy, and branding are key to author promotion.

  8. HM Ward
    HM Ward says:

    Bwhuhahaha! Holy fricken crap! U r awesome! I can’t believe you actually said that. I had similar conversations with my agent and publishers last year while my book was on submission. They said the same asinine things they told you, however they actually disputed that having a strong online presence actually sells books. I have over 50K facebook fans. Seriously? 50K people doesn’t help? They had no idea what they were doing with online marketing at all. I self pubbed. I made more money than I would have gotten from an advance. Handing the trad ppl your marketing is the kiss of death. They seriously think a cardboard cutout is gonna take u places. ROCK ON GIRL! Just had to say that u r awesome!

  9. Barbara Rogan
    Barbara Rogan says:

    Thanks for an interesting, meaty post. You raise a lot of excellent points about what your former publisher did poorly, and for that I hope your post is widely read in the industry. But I think you understate what mainstream publishers do well that self-published authors can’t do–especially in fiction, my area of expertise.

    1. Brick and mortar store sales. It’s not just B&N. As bookstores disappear, stores like Target and Walmart are becoming important book outlets.
    2. Library sales. For most midlist fiction writers, library sales of thousands of copies make up a large part of their sales, and account for far more sales than most self-published books.
    3. Quality control. Because self-publishing can cost next to nothing, the self-published market is full of some pretty awful stuff. Unless the author also has mad marketing skills and a great platform, as you seem to have, worthy books have no way of distinguishing themselves from the others.
    4,. Being published also positions you for other good things to happen: reviews in mainstream and industry publications, most of which do not review self-published work, nominations for awards, foreign, film, and other subsidiary rights sales.
    5. Advances.Can’t beat ’em.

    I wrote a post on this very subject, but from a different perspective, called “What if J. K. Rowling had Self-Published?”
    I think it’s great that writers have choices; but I’d argue that most writers, novelists in particular, are better served by going with trade publishers than going it alone.

  10. Chuck Rylant
    Chuck Rylant says:

    This is a very good summary of the same conclussions I came to over a year ago when I was publishing my first book.

    The only reason to endure the headaches of a traditional publisher is #5, as you stated, to get into Barnes and Nobel. And statistically that is very difficult as you are competing against evergreen best sellers.

    Even if you do get in there, if you are selling it, why get $1 when you can get $8 per book and have total control. It is so very easy to self publish and I don’t understand why people with large followings don’t get this.

  11. Sylvester
    Sylvester says:

    I was directed here by someone that I respect. After reading this blog post, I will not buy your book. I see no signs of how to work well with others or how to be a member of a team. I do see a lot of criticism and attacking traditional publishing. If this is an example of being happy and the “new American dream”. I want no part of it. It sounds like a nightmare to me.

  12. Manuel Royal
    Manuel Royal says:

    “How I got a big advance … and self-published anyway.”

    “…Hyperink. They are an independent publisher.”

    1) So which is it? Did you self-publish, or did you get published by an independent publisher?

    2) Did your contract with the first publisher allow you to walk away and keep your advance? If not, are they taking appropriate action?

    3) Before you walked away with your advance, had the publisher’s editors done any work on your book? One of the main reason most self-published books are terrible is the lack of a professional editor (or at least someone who is not the author) giving it a good going-over.

  13. Danny Cairnes
    Danny Cairnes says:

    This is a fantastic article.
    I went through six months of chasing after agents and big name publishers only to be given polite emails that fantasy was not a genre they took on. I was just about onto writing my third book when I decided to go down the self publishing path.
    I have gone to Amazon and lets see what will come of this decision.

    Watch this space!

    Dan

  14. Victor R Volkman
    Victor R Volkman says:

    As someone who started their own publishing company in 2003 and has published more than 150 books, everything you say about the industry is true, especially about Amazon owning the customer.

    The only point I disagree with is Hyperink’s cookie-cutter covers. They don’t even bother to change the font from one book cover to the next. I suppose they are trying to create a product like “For Dummies” which has only slight variations from cover-to-cover. But seeing two next to each other was a visceral turn off to me. It’s still worth spending money on a book cover design even though it only exists as a postage-stamp icon on Amazon.

  15. Rubberman
    Rubberman says:

    E-books should sell for $6 or less (as yours is on Hyperlink), not be DRM-encumbered (it isn’t), and available in multiple formats (it is) – most of us today use different devices to read media, ranging from our PC’s (PDFs are great for that), phones, and e-book readers of various sorts. So, you have hit smack on what I think are the issues that keep people from buying more e-books. However, there are times when I REALLY want hard copy as well, and will pay more for that. If the publisher also provided an extra cost (but not too costly) option of print on demand, that would be the bees knees!

  16. Rashaan
    Rashaan says:

    really interesting post, and i was thoroughly entertained by the replies below. it’s fascinating watching these independent publishers evolve. would be great to have a list/discussion of new indie publishers like hyperink, vook, charles river editors, editors of new word city, et cetera

  17. BookDesigner
    BookDesigner says:

    Interesting stuff, Penelope. You obviously have no taste in book design, though. Your book’s cover image and design is terrible. Book buyers don’t need the design/image to be dumbed down this much. Perhaps that is why traditional publishers take an year to get a book just right. The book covers that traditional publishers put out are FAR better than anything a self-published author can create. Get a clue!

    • CarrieVS
      CarrieVS says:

      That’s hardly true.

      A self-publishing author has all the same options as a big publisher with regard to hiring a good designer and there’s no reason why they can’t have a fantastic cover except that a lot of them, evidently, don’t bother. (No comment on Penelope’s cover, because I haven’t seen it.)

  18. Shad Price
    Shad Price says:

    Thank you for sharing your adventures in publishing! The blog post in itself was a great read. Went ahead and purchased your book because I support you and what you are doing. We need more people like you who are willing to change the game.

    BTW, in cases like this, I don’t care if the book was about cow chip throwing techniques, I will more than likely buy it because I support those who are blazing their own trail, bucking the traditional publishing trends, and embracing technology! :)

    Thanks, great deal on the book too. Several formats, DRM free, and an option to gift it to 4 of my friends?

    Awesomeness.

    Are you dinosaurs of the old guard publishing industry listening? I doubt it. I continue to watch with great interest your slow and steady demise as it really is quite entertaining.

  19. Rachel Maund
    Rachel Maund says:

    If it’s any consolation, publishers don’t want authors like Penelope Trunk who think that writing a book suddenly makes them experts in publishing editing, design, production, sales, marketing, SEO and the supply chain anyway. Self-publish away and good luck to you, and I do really mean that. I’m a publishing consultant and I’ve worked in publishing (and bookselling before that) for over 30 years. It’s a complex industry largely full of people committed to the work they publish and passionate about it. Indeed they/we have to be because the profit margins have ALWAYS been shockingly low. It’s both naive and grossly insulting to assume that publishers ‘do nothing for a year’ between MS delivery and publication, or that none of us know what we’re talking about, but then that level of ignorance also accounts for the volume of rubbish being self-published. No matter. Quality work self-published will rise to the top, and that’s fantastic, and any professional publisher would agree with me. The rest will sink without trace without wasting the time or energies of anyone other than their deluded author.

    • Shad Price
      Shad Price says:

      I understand and sympathize with you in a way because I am pretty sure that it’s no fun being slowly marginalized. My sympathy begins to wane when I witness how your industry has reacted to technology and change.

      Adapt or become marginalized. Come up with some new ideas, work with the young upstarts with the new vision instead of suing them out of existence. We are not the enemy so stop treating us as such.

      Regardless of how you feel personally, Penelope’s way is exactly the way that I, and countless others, prefer it. It’s accessible, cheap, easy, and non-restrictive.

  20. Kasey
    Kasey says:

    Every weekend i used to pay a quick visit this web site, for the
    reason that i wish for enjoyment, since this this web site conations really
    nice funny data too.

  21. ben
    ben says:

    What a great post! Loved your point about Barnes and Noble — it is such a great feeling to see your book in the store, but the content is so much bigger than that.

    thanks for sharing your experience and good luck with the new american dream –

    best,
    ben

  22. Randall Fleming
    Randall Fleming says:

    I have yet to read this entire column—although I am settling into doing so, immediately after this first comment—but I must state that it appears to be as well-written as the subject under reviews is sad.

    I might also point out that the book publishing industry—as much as I try to love it—has long been suspected of printing its own blinders with respect to marketing, finances, et al. A fine title on the topic of the industry was written by Leonard Shatzkin, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1982, and remains a favorite of mine whenever I become discouraged or ebullient about a forthcoming publishing project. (Not to state I seek a reason to abandon a project, but a reason to remain reasonable about the results.)

    Another title I would strongly suggest is So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance, by Gabriel Zaid (Paul Dry Books, 2003). I imagine the trade edition that was released is close enough to the advance I received in 2001. It is a title that appears meant for the lover of books, but certainly should be read by anyone intimately involved in the trade.

    I will now resume my reading.

  23. Randall Fleming
    Randall Fleming says:

    “But Amazon tells the publishers nothing. So the publishers have no idea who is buying their books. Amazon, meanwhile, is getting great at understanding who is buying which book.”

    I read an article—which I am unable to find online, I’m afraid to state, and after some considerable searching in the stack nearby as well as on-line—in the WSJ not a fortnight ago, about how Amazon appears to track best-selling items by independent sellers on the site, then make the same item(s) available at a lesser price. the result is a precipitous and immediate decline in sales for the independent seller even as said seller remains responsible for the same fees despite having done some considerable R&D for Amazon regarding said item(s).

    This appears to allow Amazon to control markets that others help develop, albeit without the latter parties being compensated and—egads!—paying for the privilege of putting profits in Amazon’s pockets.

  24. Annalisa
    Annalisa says:

    Speaking of editing, “the book industry doesn’t build it’s own brand” should read, “the book industry doesn’t build its own brand.”

  25. Marc Rosen - Co-editor of the Perspectives series
    Marc Rosen - Co-editor of the Perspectives series says:

    Okay, this is why I’m glad I work with a SMALL press! Most of our sales are, as you said, ONLINE! However, because of that, we can transcend traditional demographics by combining it with offline outreach. Also, we’re probably one of the few publishers that actually DOES have its own fan base, and actively works at building a groundswell of support for us as a BRAND!

    Authors DO build brands. As an author myself (of other works), I understand how crucial it is. However, a good publisher should be able to stand on its own as a brand, too. Local Gems (the press that publishes Perspectives) stands on its own, and has a loyal fanbase that transcends the support for any one title it puts out. That’s been the secret to our success.

  26. 49ERS VS LIONS LIVE STREAM
    49ERS VS LIONS LIVE STREAM says:

    It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d definitely donate to this brilliant blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking
    and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
    I look forward to fresh updates and will talk about this website with my Facebook group.
    Chat soon!

  27. Poarousasp Mistry
    Poarousasp Mistry says:

    amazing insight and amazing crowd posting comments.
    Could not resist ( waited an hour to post this :- actually took a shower, did daily ritual prayers ) then decided to call this post & its avid readers comments as “amazing”.
    I stumbled upon /Came across this posy in one of my “casual / sunday reading”.
    As a full time manager/ part time casual writer in progress,i have pages written in a word document and have dreams to see my words into an actual “reading format book” ( traditional + ebook).
    But it is a big world out there and i am a very small quarx /part of that maze.
    Very inspiration post and comments.
    Keep up the comments people,
    Heard in a dilbert cartoon once, “keep it coming, keep it coming”

  28. Mark Anthony
    Mark Anthony says:

    The number of books that have been self published annually in the U.S. has nearly tripled since 2006 and the industry is expected to continue its monumental rise in popularity. The number of self published books is up 287 percent according to a survey done by Bowker, the world’s leading provider of bibliographic information.

  29. Search
    Search says:

    Terrific post but I was wanting to know if you could write a litte more on this topic? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Appreciate it!

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